When one looks upon the wasted ambient thermal energy of an industrial warm water lake, one wonders if that heat energy could be captured and funneled into productive use, without the use of artificial power or without mechanical means. Likewise, other waste thermal energy sources, such as parking lots or roads, hold such a large amount of heat energy that they change the environmental conditions of cities. In fact, cities can be considered as “urban heat islands” due to the amount of stored energy compared to surrounding areas.
A renewable energy system that can move thermal energy from these waste heat sources and use the energy productively would both provide a source of energy where it is needed and also provide a re-greening of the waste heat source by reducing its temperature to one that is more suitable for its natural environment.